An important aspect of health care concerns the cost-effective distribution of pharmaceuticals. This is especially important in settings such as hospitals, where the pharmaceuticals for a large number of patients are commonly dispensed from a central pharmacy housed within the hospital. Hospitals typically employ a number of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to personally oversee the hospital's pharmacy. Additionally, a relatively large inventory is kept on hand due to the rapid depletion of stock. Obviously, employing several individuals to do a job which is associated with sporadic activity is subject to review in the face of what some view as spiraling health care costs. Additionally, freeing pharmacists to spend more of their time with doctors and patients improves the quality of the health care provided.
Concerns about the increasing cost of health care have lead to the introduction of automated drug retrieval systems, some of which systems utilize robotics. There are several advantages associated with the use of robotics. First, there are the obvious savings in salaries, since the jobs associated with some individuals can be replaced with machines. Second, there is a greater reliability associated with robotics that incorporate bar code scanning which select an item for retrieval as opposed to the possibility of human error in reading the item to be retrieved. This significantly reduces the potential for pharmacy malpractice. Third, there is the elimination of product being misappropriated from a storage area by individuals for their own subsequent use or resale. Fourth, it improves the billing process. Fifth, it permits the establishment of an electronic medical record. Sixth, it simplifies the health care process through the elimination of paperwork.
In one example of an existing robotic drug retrieval system, or a robotic medication dispensing systems as they are also known, the pharmaceutical to be retrieved/dispensed is typically placed inside a sealed plastic bag in unit doses for subsequent scanning and selection. The robotic drug retrieval system has as part of a hospital's central pharmacy a secured area having two opposing walls with pegs thereon and with a robot which circulates within this area. As a pharmacy technician loads a pharmacy cart for the distribution of pharmaceuticals to various patients, the technician in a robotic drug retrieval system utilizes a patient tray having affixed thereto bar codes identifying the name of particular patients and their locations within the hospital. The robotic drug retrieval system thereafter selects the specific drugs required to be delivered to a particular patient and puts them into the patient tray, and provides the filled tray to the pharmacy technician for subsequent distribution to the patient. Once the sealed plastic bags have been removed from their corresponding pegs on the walls by the robot, it becomes necessary to restock that distribution area. In order for this to be done, the robot must place new bags on the pegs.
The new bags come from a restocking source. Typically, the restocking source is a cart having at least one wall portion with pegs similar to those on the wall of the distribution area. Due to concerns about excess inventories created as a result of the large runs required to generate economies of scale, it would be advantageous for the restocking source to not be excessively large, as far as the number of bags of a given pharmaceutical associated with the restocking source. Also, due to concerns about costs, it is important for an accurate record to be kept relative to the inventory restocked. An important aspect of this is that an accurate number of bags be provided for the actual restocking process. These concerns have not been addressed in pre-existing drug retrieval systems.
It is thus apparent that the need exists for an improved method for the dispensing of pharmaceuticals, especially those pharmaceuticals which are dispensed by robotic drug retrieval systems.